· Increasingly strong rumours suggest that whatever happens to WH Smith (at present subject to a bid from venture capital group Permira), its publishing subsidiary Hodder Headline will find a new home. The most likely one is the French group Hachette, owner of Orion in the UK as well as Octopus and Chambers Harrap. It is hard to predict whether Hachette, which does not have a record of merging its acquisitions, would nevertheless bring together the similar HH and Orion. A safer prediction is that an acquirer of Hodder Headline will want to acquire with it the skills of Tim Hely Hutchinson, its well respected chief executive.

· Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad, is proving himself a campaigning chairman of the Society of Authors. He has been an outspoken critic of publishers' dealings with book clubs, and led authors in their protests against proposals to remove cover prices from books; now, following the collapse of supermarket supplier Cork International, he has turned his attention to book sales through supermarkets.

In a letter to the trade press this week, he says that the SoA feels "a deep unease" about the high discounts supermarkets command from publishers, and about the effect of competition on bookshops. The influence of the supermarkets has contributed to a concentration on a narrow range of blockbusting titles, Beevor contends, "arguably... to the disadvantage of most authors".

He means that many authors are seeing their works overshadowed, and that the squeezing of margins in the book industry is reducing authors' royalties. He has a proposal: "We think that publishers should consider limiting to 55% the discount that they give any retailer on new titles within, say, three months of first publication." It's a plea worth making, but it won't have any effect. Competition law prevents companies from acting together on discounts; and the chance of any publisher making such a move unilaterally is non-existent.

· A previously unpublished work by Graham Greene is to appear this autumn. Described in the Greene collection at the University of Texas as a "film story", No Man's Land features the favourite Greene themes of espionage, betrayal and Catholicism. It comes in October from the small press Hesperus, which specialises in neglected classics. The editor is Dr James Sexton, and there will be a foreword by Ken Follett. Also out this October, 100 years after Greene's birth, will be the third and final volume of Norman Sherry's epic biography.

· The book industry's new code of practice on publication dates will have a trial run in September, when a selection of lead titles will, if the trial works, hit bookshops on designated days, and not before or after. That selection may include a new biography of Robbie Williams (Ebury), Patricia Cornwell's Trace (Little, Brown), Alexander McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club (Little, Brown), and Alan Titchmarsh's Rosie (Simon & Schuster). They will go on sale on Mondays, thereby enjoying six days in the shops before the bestseller lists are compiled.

· Paul Gascoigne's autobiography, however, came out yesterday, and so has only two days in the shops before its sales are first counted. Still, there is a print run of 200,000 copies of Gazza: My Story (Headline), which the footballer has written "with" Hunter Davies. He has embarked on an eight-day signing tour, and there is advertising for the book on the Tesco trailer fleet in his native north-east.

The micro chart1 The Gruffalo by Donaldson & Scheffler (Macmillan £5.99)2 The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss (Collins £4.99)3 Room on the Broom by Donaldson & Scheffler (Macmillan £5.99)4 The Smartest Giant in Town by Donaldson & Scheffler (Macmillan £5.99)5 Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss (Collins £4.99)6 Mr Happy and the Wizard by Roger Hargreaves (Egmont £2.50)7 Little Miss Naughty and the Good Fairy by Roger Hargreaves (Egmont £2.50)8 Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Red Fox £5.99)9 We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Rosen & Oxenbury (Walker £5.99)10 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Hamilton £4.99)